RESEARCH INTO THE PROBLEMS OF THE BUDGET FOR CITIZENS OF BELARUS AND WAYS TO SOLVE THEM HAS BEEN PUBLISHED

The Budget for Citizens is an information and reference document that summarises and explains in simple language information about the budget. Most budget-related documents are characterised by a large amount of special terminology, so the Budget for Citizens can be considered the most important budget document from the point of view of an ordinary citizen. It is developed directly for the general public and is available for understanding even for those people who do not have special knowledge of the budget and tax sphere. An important point for ease of perception is also the fact that information on the budget is provided in a large number of various documents, and such a document as the Budget for Citizens unites it.

The Finance Ministry  of the Republic of Belarus publishes «Budgets for Belarus Citizens» annually, starting in 2018. By the beginning of 2023, six «Budgets for Belarus Citizens» based on budget planning documents had already been published. Over the past six years, the situation with data completeness in these references and information documents has improved. For example, the section on local budgets has been significantly expanded, information on the macroeconomic forecast on the basis of which the budget was developed has appeared, a section with information on the implementation of state programmes has been added, and the quality of data visualisations has improved.

At the same time, despite a number of positive changes, the annually published «Budgets for Belarus Citizens» still cannot boast of completeness of information and compliance with the best international practices in this area. The incompleteness of data in the Budgets for Belarus Citizens can be explained not so much by the desire to hide data as by the general lack of thought in the format of data provision and lack of understanding of the real needs of citizens for information on the budget. A clear understanding of how to improve this document, along with the willingness of the Finance Ministry to invest in this process, could allow for a relatively easy and quick significant improvement in the quality of the document.

The purpose of the next research by BIPART «Budgets for Belarus Citizens. Problems and Solutions» is to identify such shortcomings in the budget for Belarus citizens, published by the Finance Ministry, and to develop recommendations for their elimination in accordance with the best international practices accumulated in this area.

The short and full versions of the research are available in our library in Russian.